188 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
It was at first supposed that the Chinese were 
acquainted only with the single purple Aster that 
was sent to France : but they possess all the varie- 
ties which we admire, and display a taste in the 
arrangement of these star-formed flowers, which 
leaves the British florists far in the back-ground. 
Even our most curious amateurs have yet to learn 
what effect these plants are capable of producing by 
their gay corollas, when carefully distributed by the 
hand of taste. 
Figure to yourself for instance a bank sloping to 
a piece of water, covered with these gay flowers, so 
arranged as to rival the richest patterns of Persian 
carpets, or the most curious figures that can be 
devised by the artist in fillagree. Imagine them 
reflected in the water, and you will have a faint idea 
of the enchanting effect produced by these brilliant 
stars in the gardens of China. 
I once attempted this kind of decoration, of which 
a celebrated traveller had talked to me a great deal, 
but failed to produce the full effect intended, owing 
to the lack of that profusion of flowers, that variety 
of shades of the same colour, and, above all, that 
admirable Chinese patience which conquers all obsta- 
cles. My little theatre, however, which was rather 
